The murder trial of Mitchel Toussaint of Bense who is accused of murdering his brother Alexis “Alex” Toussaint in November 2011 in a land dispute was aborted on Friday after the judge declared a mistrial.
Reports are that it was brought to the attention of the prosecution that a member of the jury was heard by a police officer making adverse comments on the case.
The matter was brought to the attention of the presiding judge, Justice Errol Thomas, who declared a mistrial.
The case has now been traversed to the next seating of the court’s criminal session.
More information later.
marjy is joke
Dominica is simply too small to be in such a mess ,corruption all over the place in every direction..
Tom I don’t intend to be Jerry with you and run around the country making fun for people to laugh. So please tell me what it is about a mistrial that you don’t understand. It is post like yours that when people read, they think that Dominica is a fool’s paradise. Educate yours Tom Boy.
It’s not marge. The jury has to be impartial and if before, during or even after the trial it is found out that a member of the jury is biased in any way before considering the evidence and the facts, then the judge has the right to dismiss the juror or suspend the trial. In that case Justice Thomas declared a mistrial. The Justice must have deemed the information significant enough to warrant the mistrial.
One Love Dominicans #OLD
Tom, call it what you want.
That’s the law. No discussion of the case outside of the jury room.
When you are a juror, as the saying, “mum’s the word.” You must not divulge matters of the case and not until it is over. Then, if asked, you can provide your opinion, especially to the Media.
Were the jurors not informed that they are prohibited from discussing the case while it is being heard?
In bigger countries, for the duration of murder cases and certain high profile ones, they are placed in a hotel and are not allowed outdoors. If the case takes three or four weeks, they are probably allowed to go home at weekends. This shows how important it is for them to be isolated and not interact with the public while the case is being heard.
I hope this will not prejudice the case to the point the murderer will be acquitted. Based on the woman’s evidence, as she observed, he killed his brother.
Some people just can’t shut their big mouth for a couple of days.
What I know about jurors, even in the jury room they cannot discuss the case, if it is on a personal level.
The only time is when they are sequestered and reviewing the evidence after receiving the judge’s instructions. This they have to discuss to determine whether the accused is guilty or not.
The devil is controlling Dominica.
Boi look marge in that country!!
What “marge”?! Stupes! It’s these ignorant comments that gets airplay and further taints the image of this country. This is a standard practice wherever you go. Jurors are supposed to be impartial and keep their tongues behind their teeth, to protect the integrity of the case. Has this not been done, and the trial continued, with this very information about the juror being made public after the fact, you would still “lambase” the system. You people are just something else. No cure. Failure to educate yourself thru reading and researching, instead of relying on a bias political/media figure to give you his/her opinion, then ‘talk’ shit on social media should be a crime!
Tom.. It’s not marge in ‘that country.’ Please Stop trying to put down Dominica. Most of our jurors are serious and follow instructions. While the juror should have known better, Jurors not obeying the instructions/rules happen everywhere. These links are just a couple examples of jurors behaving badly in the US, UK. Russia… That, Tom… is real marjey in those countries.”
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2015/06/juror_misconduct_leads_to_mist.html
http://jurorsbehavingbadly.blogspot.com/
What is the marge? Some of you love to spew negativity. It all depends on the level of your brains.
Imagine you got many thumbs up. I suppose they did not understand you or are the ones causing the marge. How could you and these people bring Dominica down in such a manner?